The Kuss Quartet's Onyx debut of Schubert and Berg was praised by reviewers worldwide. With Theme Russe, the group offers listeners an enchanting program of Russian music for string quartet. The multiple-composer Variations on a Russian Folk Song has composers such as Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and Lyadov rub shoulders with lesser-known names such as Vitols, Blumenfeld, Ewald, Winkler, Sokolov and Artsybuschev - each composer contributing one variation. Selections from Tchaikovsky's Album for the Young are followed by two 20th-century works - Stravinsky's effervescent Concertino, and Schnittke's spare and somber Canon in memoriam Igor Stravinsky. Tchaikovsky's ever-popular first String Quartet concludes this ingenious recital.

Gramophone MagazineThe Kuss Quartet's new record, 'Theme russe', consists mostly of a number of appetising morsels, not so much a meal as hors d'oeuvres...Tchaikovsky provides the only substantial work, his First Quartet, played with a lively dance lilt in the Scherzo and a gentle eloquence with the arrangement of a genuine Ukrainian folksong.

Classical MusicAn intelligent, rewarding and well-recorded programme from this superb German-based quartet. The main work, Tchaikovsky's first quartet, comes at the end and is one of the finest recent performances on disc.

BBC Music Magazine, December 2012The Kuss's relatively low-key approach works well in the Schnittke but makes the Concertino seem discursive and dull...The Kuss seem more at home in Dubinsky's arrangements of Tchaikovsky...In Tchaikovsky's Quartet, the players bring an understated tenderness to the well-loved slow movement.